Bobby Hutcherson
The Kicker (Blue Note 21437)

Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Henderson, Grant Green, Duke Pearson, Bob Cranshaw, Al Harewood – you do the math. There's no way this one could have been bad. This was the same group that made Grant's Idle Moments, one of the finest of all Blue Note releases, and this session, recorded at the end of the same year (1963), is a good complement to the material on that album.

It is way more straightforward, almost like a relaxing after-hours set where Idle Moments was a scorching 10pm set. The difference is probably that the session belongs to Hutcherson, whose vibes are much more entrancing than Grant Green's guitar lines, which are more direct and melodic.

Hutcherson's vibes float around you rather than attack you head-on, wrapping around you like a thin fog, which you don't realize is actually nerve gas until it's too late – you're laid out on the floor and you haven't been to work in weeks. That's why Bobby Hutcherson is one of my favorite jazz musicians ever, 'cause I like to miss work.

Oddly, this disc is not really that representative of what Hutcherson was known for, which was much more avant garde – he was always in the coolest sessions playing on the most forward-reaching albums with the most visionary guys in the Blue Note stable: Eric Dolphy, Grachan Moncur III, Andrew Hill, Jackie McLean – and his own solo records are some of the best ever, especially the ones from later in the decade, like Patterns and Stick Up and Components and many many others.

This was his first session as a leader, and it went unreleased until 1999, probably because things were moving pretty fast at Blue Note back then and by the time it would have been relevant to put this out, everyone had moved on to something even better. But the fact that this isn't the most groundbreaking thing ever recorded hardly means it's nothing.

It's a great set with tunes by Joe Henderson, Joe Chambers, Pearson, and Lerner & Loewe for the token standard ("If Ever I Would Leave You"). The CD actually starts off pretty tame but starts burning on Hutcherson's "For Duke P.," which features great soloing from Bobby and Duke. "The Kicker" is one of Henderson's signature tunes, and it gets its first recording here, though it would be rerecorded more successfully by Henderson on Horace Silver's Song For My Father album, and again on Henderson's own album called The Kicker. Great tune, done well here, nice solo by Joe.

"Step Lightly" is a strolling little Henderson composition, kind of unsticky but at fourteen minutes, an undeniably pleasant stroll nonetheless. This one features an extended solo by Grant, who otherwise is not a very strong presence on this album, he lays back through most of it. The disc closes with Pearson's "Bedouin," characteristically featuring a sneaky and brilliant melody, with a little Orientalist flair and some great interplay between Henderson and Pearson.

The session as a whole couldn't qualify as my favorite moment by any of the involved parties, but when you've got a group this good, anything's bound to be at least interesting. This is that and more, not a classic but not something that ought to have languished in the vaults for over 35 years, neither.

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Review by Petra Chemikal